India has taken a prominent role in shaping the discourse around the blue economy, leveraging its strategic position and prioritizing the Indian Ocean region. With a coastline spanning 7,517 kilometers and 1,382 offshore islands, India boasts a vast maritime domain rich in resources, offering extensive opportunities for economic growth and development.
The blue economy, encompassing sustainable activities in oceans, rivers, water bodies, and coastal regions, aligns with India’s vision for inclusive growth, innovation, and technological advancement. The country envisions the blue economy as a catalyst for food security, poverty alleviation, climate change resilience, enhanced trade and investment, maritime connectivity, job creation, and overall socio-economic growth.
Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, India’s blue economy has demonstrated resilience, recording exports worth $7.2 billion from April 2021 to February 2022. This sector plays a crucial role in sustaining over four million fishermen and coastal communities, positioning India as the world’s second-largest fish-producing nation with a fleet of 250,000 fishing boats.
Shipbuilding and shipping also contribute significantly to India’s blue economy, with plans to increase coastal shipping to 33% by 2035. The Indian Ocean’s strategic significance, serving as a corridor for global trade between the Strait of Hormuz and the Strait of Malacca, underscores the region’s importance in the global economy.
To promote the blue economy, India has launched initiatives such as the ‘Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana’ (PMMSY) with a budget of Rs 20,050 crore, aiming for a sustainable ‘blue revolution’ in the fisheries sector. The Union Budget 2023-24 allocated Rs 6,000 crore for a sub-scheme under PMMSY to further empower fishermen.
However, the blue economy faces environmental threats, notably from marine debris, particularly abandoned, lost, or discarded fishing gear (ALDFG). Globally, about 640,000 tonnes of ghost gears are disposed of in the oceans annually, contributing to marine pollution. India, with 174,000 units of fishing gear in operation, loses 15,276 tonnes of gillnets annually, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
To address these challenges, India has launched coastal clean-up drives, actively participates in International Coastal Clean-up Day, and is formulating the “National Marine Litter Policy.” The country is also engaged in blue beach development, prioritizing clean, ‘zero waste’ approaches for tourism.
Extensive research and expeditions by organizations such as the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) and National Institute of Oceanography aim to reduce marine litter, manage coastlines, forecast accurate weather, plan fishing activity zones, and promote sustainable growth in India’s blue economy.
